By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great local journalism.

Groups seek appeal of design decision

Forsyth County News

Alyssa LaRenzie

Updated:
Feb. 17, 2011, 8 a.m.

A recent Forsyth County planning board decision to relax a Peachtree Parkway Overlay District requirement for a retailer has stirred some concern.

Smart Growth Forsyth County, along with several residents and homeowners associations, has sent a letter requesting an appeal of the decision.

On Jan. 25, the planning board voted 5-0 to approve an aesthetic tweak for Academy Sports Outdoors, which plans to open a location at The Avenue Forsyth.

The overlay requires the exterior of stores at the outdoor shopping mall in south Forsyth be 75 percent brick, stone and glass, while Academy's plan calls for 45 percent.

Unlike all other votes, the planning board has the final say on alternative design reviews. The matter is not required to go before the county commission.

Smart Growth has expressed concern about the decision itself, as well as the way the variance was handled.

Claudia Castro, deputy director, said the volunteer group hopes the county commission will take a look at how the rules have been set in Forsyth's unified development code.

"There's a little loophole in the code that allows the planning commission to become an architectural review board, in a sense to take a look at a plan and then decide on it without any input from the public and without having to send it on," Castro said.

She noted that Smart Growth is concerned about other groups seeking alternative plans and pointing to the precedent.

The application was submitted in late December, discussed at Jan. 18 and Jan. 25 work sessions and voted on at the latter, Castro said. She added that public notice was not given for the Jan. 18 meeting.

During its work session Tuesday, the planning board reviewed the process of considering an overlay alternative design.